Posts by Iown Mylife

28

Fading fast children are starting to ask questions, need help.

by Crazyguy in

jw
friends

ok i have been fading fast, missed a lot of meetings over the past couple of months and the kids think its mostly do to my being busy with work.

this morning was probably the first sunday that i was home and could go but did not.

so my 8 year old asked me if i was going and why when i said no.

Iown Mylife

"As hard as I work, sometimes I just don't want to leave the house on my day off - I know I need to try harder to be balanced."

Or something along that line. Imagine having to justify wanting to rest on your day off.

The Cult SUCKS

56

Field Service Reports Count More than Showing Love - Ray Franz CF Book

by flipper in

jw
friends

i've always suspected this was the wt society's view when i was in the jehovah's witness organization - but never knew the head of the writing committee karl adams had written a letter to nathan knorr ( then wt president ) recommending a change regarding reporting field service time as it wrongly emphasized jw members being seen as mainly being approved due to field service statistics - instead of emphasizing christian qualities of love, kindness, peace, etc.. karl adams had been personally handpicked by nathan knorr to be the head of the writing department.

in 1971 he wrote a letter to knorr which he wanted shared with the entire governing body as well .

i'll share the main parts of that letter.. on pg.

Iown Mylife

So after all that, i began to question things more closely, especially my own motivation for everything. I hadn't read CofC yet, at that time. But I began to figure out that I couldn't stand going in fs, there was no reason to, unless i just wanted to invite people into a lifestyle where they could get hooked in and waste years of their lives like i did.

What was I inviting people TO?! I couldn't do it anymore.

56

Field Service Reports Count More than Showing Love - Ray Franz CF Book

by flipper in

jw
friends

i've always suspected this was the wt society's view when i was in the jehovah's witness organization - but never knew the head of the writing committee karl adams had written a letter to nathan knorr ( then wt president ) recommending a change regarding reporting field service time as it wrongly emphasized jw members being seen as mainly being approved due to field service statistics - instead of emphasizing christian qualities of love, kindness, peace, etc.. karl adams had been personally handpicked by nathan knorr to be the head of the writing department.

in 1971 he wrote a letter to knorr which he wanted shared with the entire governing body as well .

i'll share the main parts of that letter.. on pg.

Iown Mylife

Hi Mr. Flipper,

I very much appreciate you talking about this - it is one of the big topics that come up when i'm thinking about the WT years of my life so i enjoy dragging it out and chewing on it a little bit once in awhile.

The whole numbers and reports thing was bugging me for a long time when i was still attending. One day I asked an elder who was personal close friends of my family, How is it really looked at, the hours that people put in, - is that what the elders really care about the most???

Like, i was sincere, i was not being flip or sarcastic. He said (of course) OH NO, that is NOT true! But there were so many little clues and hints to pick up on, in the way I was greeted and treated, at the bookstudy especially. The briskness was just short of disrespect.

I had a serious injury, which i won't describe because i don't want to be outed and that would tell the story by itself. But anyway, i didn't go around telling people and talking about it - i figured the elders knew and that was enough. I had a hard time getting to meetings after this injury, for months. But gradually people began to treat me a little colder, and a little colder, - none of them ever came up and asked me anything about what was going on, even people i had known over 25 years. So I never explained myself and apparently the elders didn't let anyone know my situation either.

So it became obvious that I was thought of as a bad associate who was irregular in service and meetings, with no justification, and was dragging down the hour averages. They kept trying to get me to attend a different bookstudy! LOL!

Bottom line, you know when you are not wanted, there's no way to mistake it.

39

Going to Kingdom Hall for first time

by InChristAlone in

jw
friends

since my family is out of town, and i am alone this weekend, i have decided to attend this once to see these things for myself.

have no fear, i have absolutely no interest in joining.

my goal is simply to better understand how to reach those who are on the inside, and i feel i could better do that by observing it.

Iown Mylife

going to the meeting. What awful words. I hate getting dressed up, having to rush around getting ready to leave the house. Get to the hall, try to find a place to park. People who are already there, clogging up the aisle so you have to push around them to find a seat. They won't move until you ask several times, Excuse me! If it's time to get a new KM pamphlet for the month, try to chase the elder down who has them, good luck with that. He's too busy, he ran out, he left them at home.

Okay the music starts, endure one of those "new" songs that probably is just a chopped up version out of the older songbook, changed enough so you feel uncomfortable trying to sing it, just stare at the book until they're done. (groan) listen to the boring as hell opening prayer. Finally, sit down, try to listen to the regular fear mongering first part of the talk, and then the predictable second part where you find the solution to the fear - staying in Jehovah's org, blah blah blah.

Field the rolling eyeballs of your teen or spouse who are both bored out of their skulls, trying to suppress gas, hungry, anxious about a job they need to get to, whatever. Noticing the armpit stink of the awful guy in the row behind you who has his arms stretched out and propped on the chairs on either side of him. OH GOD.

Listen to another song. Wait for the WT study to get over with. More fear, more predictable solution. Listen to ANOTHER song and another horribly boring prayer. Lean over and prop your arms on the chair in front of you when your back starts to hurt. Give up and just sit down, this droning will never end.

Try not to heave a huge audible sigh of relief as you gather up your meeting dreck and shove it into your meeting bag, and head on out, trying to avoid the clumps of people who don't move when you're trying to get by, and shrug off the inquiries of nosy self-righteous hypocrites.

Get home, rip off horrible meeting clothes, get some lunch or get blue jeans on and go out to eat somewhere you won't run into anybody from the congregation. Because you're SICK of seeing their faces, and trying to forget all the mean, inconsiderate things that have happened over 30 years.

24

My grandmother passed away at 4:55am

by losingit in

jw
friends

imtyping this on my phone, please excuse the misspellings.

i'm sad.

she lived a long life, 90 years, and battled alzheimer's for the last 5 years of her life.

Iown Mylife

You are a special person. I hope you get to feel better soon and able to enjoy your memories of your grandma♥

140

Why So Many Young People Are Leaving The Watchtower

by Jeremy C in

i have been giving a lot of thought to the young people who are leaving the watchtower organization in recent years.

last night, i was reading the thread posted by jwfacts a while back in which he provided some statistics and graphs showing the rapidly declining growth in the watchtower.

one factor that was discussed at length was the high number of young people who do not stay in the organization.

Iown Mylife

Maybe the 60s are back - the stores are full of hippie styles - the belief in freedom of the individual might be making a big comeback too

25

This is well worth remembering

by The Quiet One in

http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2001/oct/08/religion.world?view=desktop.

Iown Mylife

Good reference article to keep.

I like the ending - the spokesperson saying "their attitude is strange." -to say the LEAST

80

hello. pls help. getting married soon. afraid i won't be happy because wtbts said so.

by seasickbumblebee in

alshello.

i'm a practicing jw.

finally decided to create an account to see whether you could all help me.. so i am engaged to this wonderful wonderful man and in three months time we'll be married.

Iown Mylife

Hi again Seasick little Bumblebee!

i hope sincerely you will pay attention to those clues you keep providing in those quotes from your fiance: "I still respect you and love you BUT..."

When someone says BUT like that, they are negating or invalidating everything they said BEFORE the But.

This is showing weakness of character - just my opinion, he is saying things that he HOPES will cause you to break up with him. I think he wants to cancel the wedding but he's too scared of the emotional confrontation it would cause. So he is trying to manipulate YOU into breaking up with him and cancelling the wedding.

It's possible that if you don't break up with him pretty soon, he will call off the wedding, maybe. It would be the best thing to delay or cancel this wedding, unless you think you really will be happy with such a wishy-washy kid who needs approval from authority figures SO MUCH that he makes his own private life public and his fiance's private life public too.

This religion is a cult. Normal people in normal life do not consider their physical lovemaking to be anybody else's business but their own. A real adult would never be involved in this silly back and forth uncertainty.

63

Jehovah's Witnesses are not a CULT ...

by Fatfreek in

according to 30% of the following definitions.

that leaves 70% that show quite the opposite.

so -- are they a cult?

Iown Mylife

Vander, looks to me like ALL those points apply to the WT.

OMG the whole shebang is a horribly ridiculous bunch of crap in a big slick theatrical production.

We were just talking today about people in that cult who think they can keep their kids out of school and homeschool them while they ride around "pioneering" all day. They have the kids doing correspondence school study in the back seat. These brilliant individuals then try to get JW's with established businesses to hire them after they have grown up with no education or marketable skills, no certification in any professional field.

OH how they looked down their noses at people who actually kept their kids on a regular school schedule and joined the PTA and went to the school on Thursday PTA nights, how spiritually weak those families were who were concerned and determined to get their kids educated. Why, those terrible weak spiritually deficient bad people might's as well just not even bother trying to be in our beautiful organization! They don't REAllY want to serve God like WE do. Let's ignore them at the meetings, give them dirty looks and then look away, shake our heads at them so they will feel bad - then when they approach us and ask if they've given offense in some way, we'll smile pityingly and condescendingly tell them Why NO, why on EARTH would you have an idea like that?

80

hello. pls help. getting married soon. afraid i won't be happy because wtbts said so.

by seasickbumblebee in

alshello.

i'm a practicing jw.

finally decided to create an account to see whether you could all help me.. so i am engaged to this wonderful wonderful man and in three months time we'll be married.

Iown Mylife

Nugget,

that is a beautiful summing up of the entire situation